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Disney has announced that it will no longer share the number of paid subscribers for its Disney+ and Hulu streaming platforms. This change will begin in 2025. The update was shared during Disney’s latest quarterly earnings report. CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston explained the reason behind this decision. They said that paid subscriber counts are becoming less important. They also believe this change matches the current direction of the media industry.
Instead of focusing on how many people are subscribed, Disney wants to highlight how much profit its streaming services are making. The company believes that financial performance is a better way to show how strong the business is. The shift will first affect ESPN+. Starting in the fourth quarter of 2025, Disney will stop reporting membership numbers and average revenue per user for ESPN+. Three months after that, it will do the same for Disney+ and Hulu.
This decision comes at a time when Disney’s streaming business is growing. In the last quarter, Disney+ and Hulu added 2.6 million new subscribers. Together, all of Disney’s streaming services now have a total of 183 million subscribers. But even with this growth, the company says it is more focused on long-term success and making money, not just gaining users.
Disney is not the first to make this move. Netflix stopped sharing subscriber numbers last year. Now that Disney is doing the same, other streaming platforms might follow. This could lead to a major shift in how the success of streaming companies is judged. For years, people focused on how many subscribers each service had. But now, the focus is turning toward how profitable each platform is.
As more people switch between platforms and password sharing rules get stricter, measuring success by user count may no longer give the full picture. Disney’s new approach shows that the company wants to stay ahead in a fast-changing streaming world.